ENERGY saving measures are proposed for County Hall, to help save £400,000 per year.

Leicestershire County Council, which has to save £110m by 2018, announced the proposals when the ruling cabinet met this week.

The council spends more than £1.5m a year on energy bills – and just less than half of this is spent on County Hall alone. The council is also taxed £600,000 per year in carbon reduction payments to the Government.

The council proposes to invest around £1m from next year’s capital programme – funded by asset sales and grants – to heat County Hall with a wood burning bio-mass boiler, install 600 solar panels on the roofs of buildings at County Hall and other council buildings, make other improvements to windows, lighting and the way buildings are occupied to reduce bills. The proposals should save more than 400 tonnes of carbon emissions per year.

Deputy leader Byron Rhodes, cabinet member for resources, said: “Our ambitious plans will pay for themselves in terms of lower energy bills and incentive payments from the Government. They also support our intention to reduce the council’s carbon footprint.”